User blog:Dexsnder/U/W Valentina 1.0 in TTW (Post-A2)
See the original post from my blog ! 11222422_753509328111432_7623841812210717398_n.jpg Well, since the The Twilight Wanderer (TTW) expansion is only a week away and that almost all of the new water attribute cards has been spoiled, I figure I'd start thinking about what from the new set would possibly benefit U/W Valentina 1.0. Water Sprite.png As someone who played Vainamoinen in my earlier Valentina builds and somewhat made her work, I could not pass up on including this card on the list. Water Sprite is pretty much a Vainamoinen with a lot more value added to it. For the same cost, we get an extra 100 in DEF and an enter ability that allow us to draw a card from our deck if the card is a Fairy resonator. Now, since this is probably the only Fairy resonator we'd run in the deck because of Alice's World being a thing, the chances of Water Sprite's ability to actually be relevent are pretty slim, but it's still something. We all know how breaking even in term of hand advantage is important to the deck and the early flying body can be very useful to block or poke during the game. Definitely a card to play if you're already playing Vainamoinen. Hera, Goddess of Jealousy.png Hera, Goddess of Jealousy is pretty much everything Valentina players asked for. A 2 cost water resonator with an uncommon race that can destroy an "Artemis, the God's Bow" upon entering the field and that floats off of it? Sign me up! However, depending on how the metagame changes with TTW, this card's viability might be very consistent or very situational. Indeed, with all the Regalia hate already announced in the set, people might play less 0 cost Regalias which, consequently, can hinder this card's viability. In any case, I still think it will still be mandatory to at least have Hera at 3 copies somewhere in the main or side deck in case we run against someone who plays one of the Seven Kings or Alices as a Ruler. Send Back.jpg Wait... did water finally get a 1 cost bounce spell for resonators that's not situational? I think so! And on top of that, the card also has the ability to bounce a Regalia or an addition on the field which means "versatility"! The great thing about Send Back is that it covers Hera's flaw of not being able to get rid of costly Regalias, so it makes it easy to switch the two of them back and forth depending on the tendency and match-ups we're most likely to face. Since some of the newer Regalia in the set are 2 or 3 total cost, getting rid of them for only 1 will make this card valuable in term of swinging the tempo in your favour. Unfortunately, the downside to Send Back is that it's not an Instant but the removal utility it gives us kind of makes it up for that flaw. Stuff like bouncing up one of our Alice's World to use it again will surely come in handy so I'm very curious to see how relevant both Send Back and Hera will be in the upcoming meta. Maritime Lookout.jpg Let's just say here that Maritime Lookout is a very welcomed addition to the water attribute's arsenal as a whole. Considering water resonators always fall victim to fire removal because of their small bodies, having Fire hate cards like this one is definitely good to balance things out. In Valentina, Maritime Lookout becomes a Quickcast resonator which makes it even more powerful than it already is. They play Lancelot? No. They try to chump block one of your resonator with Rukh Egg? No. They play Susanowoand try to swing for game? No. I don't know if the Fire attribute will be as popular as it is right now but if it is, this card will be so great at winning the tempo war against them. Her being a Soldier kind of sucks because of the fact that she shares that race with Alice's Little Scout and can consequently ruin an Alice's World set-up, but she's still definitely another viable card to keep in mind when building the side deck. The Overlord's Baptism.jpg Although we'd only be using half of this card's ability, I find The Overload's Baptism still pretty crazy in any water centric deck. The ability to bounce everything that share the same race on our opponent's field can be very devastating in some match-ups. Considering themed decks are still very much a thing to this day (i.e Fairy Tale, Knights of the Round Table, Angel, Zombie, Beast) and that they are still pushing the idea of archetype centric decks with the coming of both Alices, this card will be a very potent side deck option for those match-ups. 4 total cost might be expensive, but paying 4 wills to possibly make our opponent go minus 4 cards can be worth it and be better than Sign to the Future as a removal in some cases. Leviathan, the First of the Sea.png Has there ever been a water resonator that's bigger than 1000/1000 up until now? If so, I don't recall. Anyway, Leviathan, here, is the water attribute's next big finisher. At first, I didn't think this guy would be all that useful in Valentina considering we already have a "finisher" in the form of Alice's World, but with all the hype Reflect/Refrain has been getting recently, Leviathan might come in handy in the deck. Reflect/Refrain and the Wind attribute in general can shut down any Alice's World attempts by either removing 8 total counters on their Ruler or just by playing the good old Absolute Cake Zone/Keen Sense. Being able to switch the deck's strategy and use Leviathan as a winning condition instead seems pretty promising to me. Leviathan also benefits from Valentina's game plan of keeping our hand healthy as his mass removal ability depends on the number of cards we discard, so that's synergy right there. Leviathan is definitely a "YOLO" type of card (which goes against the deck's pacing), but I believe it will still find its place in Valentina somewhere when we'll need it. Alright, folks, that's all I have for now. Can't wait to test things out and see how the meta changes in the upcoming format. And don't forget to thank our new Overlord of the Seven Lands as I'm pretty sure it's because of her presence that we're still getting a lot of new tools for Valentina 1.0. See the original post from my blog ! Category:Blog posts